It was okay when the English sent letters to Sinhalese villagers in English?

The longest and the most ridiculous immigration form is the one they give just before landing in USA. After a long list of questions where you have to tick boxes – it says …. if the answer is yes to any of the above questions, please contact the nearest US embassy…”

‘ None so blind as those who can see but cannot comprehend’
LD

Let’s hope you will not be called a chauvinist or banned your views here.

It’s not only the Sinhalese Buddhists who should practice their religion better, but also the Tamil Hindus. Let’s be clear on that.

I don’t know much about you. Today NGOs and pro LTTE media have started preaching Buddhism to Sri Lankan Buddhists including “tele evangalist buddhist priests” that you mentioned. Which is also known as ‘kakkutu bana’, the preaching of a crab to tell other to walk straight.

What you simply posted was timeless Buddhist wisdom came out of Kalama Sutta. Please ask the question how many people understand (rather realized) that?

If you practice Buddhism or whatever religion dear to you whole heartedly, you will connect with another good Buddhist spiritually.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
- The Buddha -

ps: Doesn’t devolving of power agree with reason and isn’t it conducive to the good and benefit of one and all who live in Sri Lanka?

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.
The Buddha

To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others.
The Buddha

ps: Food for thought eh?

1) When we compare the state of security between the US and Sri Lanka we are comparing a relatively developed democracy to a struggling democracy. This distinction is important. Whilst we can accuse the US of many evils – at least their justice system will deliver justice and; at least they are free to criticise the relevant authorities. Just look at the legal quagmire that the US government finds itself in today; with regard to the usage of torture and Guantanamo bay. In addition to a justice system that delivers justice – they have a media that is able to criticise and keep the US administration on their toes. Thus I don’t think it is fair to compare Sri Lanka with the US.

2) What does race or religion have to do with the potential of the individual? What does race or religion have to do with the direction that the individual makes in life? Nothing. I know there are alot of elaborate theories but they flatly deny the individuality of the human being.

Thanks for reading!
-G

2. Buddhism is considred as part of Hinduism by many Hindus and all JTamil primary schools used to(when I was small) teach about Jesus, Buddha and Allah in those days out of schools’ choice and now as part of National Curriculum there is an input on Buddhism and Islam in Hinduism classes.

3. Buddhism is a highly respected philosophy all over the world. What shocks many is that some(not all) Buddhist monks have been very racist which is just the opposite of Buddhist philosophy. Can anyone believe that a Buddhist monk killed a prime minister for trying to be considerate(by having Special Tamil provisions in this case)? …………

4. As far as wealth motivation is concerned it’s difficult to make generalisations. Maybe majority ethnicities don’t have to worry too much about themselves as the governments will look after them more than the minorities – there have been many too many intrastate ethnic conflicts in this world.

5. Many political analysts have been warning many countries with intrstate ethnic conflicts to learn lessons from Sri Lanka. Political analysts have just said that Sri Lankan ethnic crisis is a good lesson for South Asian countries.

6. I wish to see hordes and hordes of people to leave their religions to embrace HUMANISM.

Folks
There is a myth that the Tamils were favoured by the British. With the development of Colombo as commercial centre in the colonial era and the development of tea and rubber plantations in the upcountry and surrounding areas and the difficulties presented by nature in the dry zones of the Northeast – saline water table and sterile land – made the Tamils embrace the Christian Missionaries’ educational facilities eagerly. So there was more than a proportional representation in the lower administrative service but not in the higher administrative service(1983 Holocaust, L.Piyadasa).
Discrimination? what discrimination?? make me mad.
1. From 50s onwards there has been utter discrimination in government employment, economic development and colonisation schemes(there are statistical data in government departments up to the 90s but I don’t find any for recent years – I need help from some to find them).
There were some Sinhalese in the 50s and 60s who didn’t accept scholarships because they should have gone to Tamils.
Sinhalese teachers visiting Jaffna schools in the early 70s were shocked to find the lack of facilities even at the most prestigious schools(I was teaching at one of them) in the peninsula.

2. Even when ‘amedments’ are brought in the parliament, they aren’t implemented in the government offices or by the armed forces: some examples: i. Official Language Act – Use of Tamil: lay people in Northeast get government letters in Sinhala, no translation of brochures/pamphlets nto Tamil(not even to English, the so-called link language – I couldn’t get brochures in Tamil or English from Ministry of Forestry produced by departments when I tried to do Environmental Education in Northeast in the 2000s) ……….
……………………………..

The fact that there were higher percentage of Tamils among SL professionals and in HE support the fact that Tamils did not make an effort to integrate with Sinhalese. In fact there have been stories by Sinhalese in this era that Tamils discouraged them seeking higher education. There was a great desire to include more Tamils in this club by powerful Tamils repulsing Sinhalese by whatever means. That culture made the job of SWRD easy by introducing misery for Tamil people.

What if there were Tamil visionaries saw that coming?

The bottom line is, when we have the cake, we must share that with bread eaters otherwise they too will want to eat the cake by themselves.

The overall happiness of a nation is much more important than the happiness of just one ethnicity.

Were there arrests without a reason – yes.
Did they keep people indefinitely without charging indefinitely – yes
Did they torture people – yes, perhaps not as bad as in Sri Lanka.
Were the family members informed about the arrests – no.
Did people go missing – yes (later found and never end up in corpses).

A person with lot of sorrow and anger carrying on their back can see things very negatively and call Sri Lanka a failed state. Bottom line is, we are not a failed state rather state with failed people. We blame government too much without thinking we are the government. If we promoted good morals within our family and neighbors, we would have translated that into the government and government wouldn’t have corruption.

Sri Lanka consists of mostly hypocrites, whiners, and parrots. The hypocrites on one hand write about freedom rights, on the other hand write checks to LTTE. The hypocrites can be wearing a yellow robe as well. The whiners do complain about what happened in the past like 1957 and 1983 all the time and unable to escape that framework. According to them, Sinhalese are the mother of all problems. The parrots always sing the same song to the international community like lack of civil rights in Sri Lanka assuming we are a perfect democracy like Canada.

Therefore no wonder we have no progress. We have created a culture to make it impossible to create visionaries and effective leaders.